Qitai Radio Telescope

The Xingjiang Qitai 110m Radio Telescope (QTT) is a planned radio telescope to be built in Qitai County in Xinjiang, China. Upon completion, which is scheduled for 2023,[1] it will be the world's largest fully steerable single-dish radio telescope. It is intended to operate at 300 MHz to 117 GHz. The construction of the antenna project is under the leadership of the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.[2][3]

Qitai Radio Telescope
Alternative namesQTT
Location(s)Qitai County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, PRC
Coordinates43°36′04″N 89°40′57″E
OrganizationChina National Space Administration 
Telescope styleradio telescope 
Diameter110 m (360 ft 11 in)
Websiteqtt.xao.cas.cn/xmjj/
Location of Qitai Radio Telescope

The fully steerable dish of the QTT will allow it to observe 75% of the stars in the sky at any given time.[4] The QTT and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), also located in China, can both observe frequencies in the "water hole" that has traditionally been favored by scientists engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), meaning that each observatory could provide follow-up observations of putative signals from extraterrestrials detected in this quiet part of the radio spectrum at the other observatory.[5]

The radio telescope site selection team considered 48 candidate locations throughout Xinjiang. The chosen site for the facility is in the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains, near Shihezi village, Banjiegou Town, about 46 km (straight-line distance) south-south-east of the Qitai county seat (Qitai Town). The mountain ridges surrounding the site are supposed to provide some protection from electromagnetic noise. The authorities propose designating a radio quiet zone (a 10 km by 15 km rectangle, much smaller than the United States National Radio Quiet Zone) around the future facility.[6]

Also, there is QES-China optical survey telescope installed in Astroshell dome.

Goals

The main goals of the QTT include imaging of pulsars, stellar formation, and the large-scale radio structure of the universe.[6][3]

Similar fully steerable telescopes

References
  1. O'Callaghan, Jonathan (January 17, 2018). "China To Build The World's Largest Steerable Radio Telescope By 2023". IFLScience. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  2. "QTT Specification". QTT International Advisory Workshop. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
  3. Na, Wang (May 2013). QiTai Radio Telescope. The Second China-U.S. Workshop on Radio Astronomy Science and Technology. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
  4. Atkinson, Nancy (January 24, 2018). "China Plans to Build the World's Largest Steerable Radio Telescope". Seeker. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  5. Mack, Eric (January 17, 2018). "New biggest radio telescope to help detect alien signals". CNET.
  6. "QTT Project Proposal". Proceeds of the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory. 2012.
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